Strange Treasure
by LadyDragon4
Summary: Final Chapter: A loop in time, a working Chameleon Circuit, and a dance aboard a ship that ISN'T the Titanic.
1. Part 1

Acknowledgement: Much thanks to my twin and beta-reader Elizabeth (known to many as Llyzbeth) who made the re-write of this story a lot more fun.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original Doctor Who characters, or the settings or their histories, or their technology, and I'm not making any money from this story. So please don't sue. Please?  
  
Author's note: I've seen a lot of Doctor Who episodes, but by no means all of them. Or even most of them. Due to this, I may have fudged some of the facts about these characters. Also their settings, histories, technology and motivations. Hi, I'm new here.  
  
Archiveable if you ask. Feedback would be lovely, thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------  
  
There was too much light here.  
  
Pulsing, harsh light. And laughter.  
  
The noises from machinery groaning and wheezing with age should have been familiar. They should have been comforting.  
  
They weren't.  
  
Even crouched in a corner, eyes squeezed shut against the light and the laughter, it was easy to hear how the sounds were wrong.  
  
It would be so easy to panic..  
  
Stay still. Stay calm.  
  
Wait.  
  
* * *  
  
It's amazing really: the things a normally sensible person will put up with for the sake of some vague idea about "responsibility".  
  
The Doctor had expected to be the center of attention. That wasn't unreasonable, was it? After all, he was the one who had started the trouble. And, too, he did have a certain reputation. Notorious, and all that. And yet somehow all the focus in the room was centered on someone else, someone who hadn't, in the Doctor's opinion, done anything to deserve it. It was only natural he should feel a bit petulant about the whole thing. (Although if asked, he would have said he was "pondering". Not at all the same thing as "sulking".)  
  
Painfully bored, the renegade Time Lord settled further into his seat and tuned out the Speaker's voice. He wondered - not for the first time - why he had ever thought coming back here would be a good idea..  
  
* * *  
  
Some people can go their entire lives without any thoughts of their mortality. Most people can't. The Doctor didn't know when the first nagging doubts had started. They could have been as recent as the last few years. Or they could have been there all along, and merely been ignored. Or forgotten. He was good at forgetting. He'd had lots of practice.  
  
Try as he might though, he couldn't put it out of his mind any longer. Now that he'd reached his thirteenth incarnation, he seemed to think of nothing else.  
  
It wasn't the idea of death that bothered him. He had chased the unknown for so long that the final step was merely something new to discover. And, as Socrates once put it, "To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know." (Lovely chap, Socrates. Not a bit of smugness in him, and he always knew the right thing to say.) And there was no reason to think that the end was right around the corner. He could expect to live another hundred years at least, barring accidents, and time didn't move any faster for someone over a thousand that it did for someone..well..younger.  
  
So no, he wasn't afraid of death. Regrets however..  
  
The Doctor tended to avoid his home planet. To be perfectly honest, he avoided it the way most people avoided the plague, and had done so for most of his life. Much of what he'd ever done for his people involved running away from them as fast as possible. He'd ignored the other Time Lords' demands, chafed under the few tasks they'd given him, and repeatedly turned down the position of President of Gallifrey because he "wouldn't enjoy that at all."  
  
And there was the problem, really. His entire life he'd done only what he wanted to do whenever possible, and ignored any sense of responsibility to his planet. Yes, the entire society was stagnant and rule-bound to a fault, but was he completely blameless for that? What had he ever willingly done to change things? (Complaining didn't count; it's easy to complain and then do nothing and leave.) Could he honestly live out the rest of his life knowing that the old state of affairs existed?  
  
Not that he liked any of these ideas. He hated them actually; almost as much as he disliked most of Gallifrean society. But all his lives he'd hated leaving any task undone. After centuries of wandering, it occurred to him that returning to Gallifrey might count as a task.  
  
Which, he reminded himself, was why he was here: sitting in an uncomfortable chair, wearing a cumbersome ceremonial cloak, surrounded by a crowd of Time Lords (none of whom liked him very much), while the most tiresome Time Lord of them all told him why he wasn't wanted.  
  
It would be nice to "ponder" some more, but the Doctor supposed he ought to pay attention.  
  
* * *  
  
To say that Enaral was a public speaker was a bit of an understatement.  
  
He was young for a Time Lord (only three hundred and ten years old, and not even regenerated once!) but it was easy to see how he could have reached such a lofty position at his age. Enaral didn't lecture, he orated. In this case he also declaimed, denounced, inveighed with much vituperation, and railed vehemently. There wasn't an adverb he didn't like, and he only breathed in dramatic pauses. It was impossible to describe just how convincing, how persuasive Enaral was when at the top of his form. The speeches the young Time Lord gave could persuade an entire city to accept crippling taxes, or to rebel in a shrieking riot, and he was ruthless enough to do either. Add to all that the fact that he was conniving and violently self-centered and..well it made for quite a display. There was little he couldn't use to his own benefit. Whatever or whoever had been the focus of a situation soon had to take a backseat to Enaral's talent. And ego.  
  
Most importantly, he didn't like the Doctor. Or approve of him, or trust him, or even respect him. And since both the Castellan and the President had opted not attend the trial, Enaral was able to give his talent free rein.  
  
"I believe, my lords, that the examples I've given, (most notably the theft of a valuable and dangerous piece of Gallifrean technology) should be more than enough to illustrate the monstrous..unsuitability..of the applicant."  
  
Enaral leveled a stern glare at the Doctor. The Speaker had artfully positioned himself in the throne on the main dais, letting his robes and the edges of his elaborate headpiece catch the faintest glimmer of light, while leaving his face in shadows.  
  
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably in his chair, surrounded by guards and raised slightly above the crowd and slightly below Enaral by a low pedestal. He'd had to compromise about his own clothes, though he'd drawn the line at the full ceremonial garb that Enaral was wearing. (Stiflingly hot, and the headpiece always made his neck ache.) At least the cloak they'd forced on him wasn't too foolish-looking, although it was rather too large, and dragged at his shoulders and wrists. There was so much white- and-gold cloth to the thing that it almost hid him from view. Not surprising, since he'd insisted on attending a High Gallifrean function wearing simple dark trousers, scuffed boots, and an almost shabbily plain white shirt. Hiding him from view was most likely the point.  
  
Enaral turned towards a different section of the room. The crowd was impressively large, almost filling the mammoth chamber where the assembly was taking place. It would have been pleasant to think that everyone was gathered there for the Doctor's sake. That was looking less and less likely. Apparently, Gallifreans were so starved for spectacle that they all flocked to the assemblies whenever Enaral felt moved to speak. Which was probably quite often. The man certainly seemed to love the sound of his own voice..  
  
"This 'Doctor', this shiftless wanderer barely known to the average Gallifrean.."  
  
I'd be a lot more than 'barely known', the Doctor thought irritably, if people here would stop making the records 'safe' for posterity.  
  
"..has returned to the planet he has scorned for so long, asking for an acceptance he has never given in return, and even suggesting that he become our leader!"  
  
(I did a lot more than suggest it, since I was damn well scolded for turning it down.)  
  
The guard standing nearest (Sergeant Vasc, who was rather full of his own importance) gave him a jab in the shoulder and told him to stop muttering.  
  
"Yes, laugh if you will my lords, but it is all too true." Everyone was too spellbound to laugh, but Enaral held up his hand for silence anyway.  
  
"By his own admission, he has consorted with lesser species, with races ignorant and aggressive enough to attempt violence even against Gallifrey. And he has told them our secrets!" He paused to let this information sink in. "Why, on at least one occasion we have had to erase the memories of this planet from the minds of intruders; intruders which this 'Doctor' allowed to be brought here."  
  
(Yes, good of you to remember that, since Jamie and Zoe couldn't.)  
  
The guard behind his chair jabbed him again and hissed "Silence!", earning a poisonous glare for his trouble.  
  
"What could we expect if we allowed him to remain?" From the direction of his gaze, Enaral seemed to be looking for an answer from the intricate columns near the ceiling, or maybe from the tops of the multi-faceted windows. "More betrayals? Could he be capable of fulfilling his dreams of leadership with violence? Might he eventually be as much of a threat as the former Time Lord known as 'The Master'?"  
  
"Now that is unmitigated slander!" The Doctor jumped up from his chair in outrage. This was greeted with general noises of shock and disapproval from the assembly. Undaunted, the Doctor continued, "Why the very idea that I could even be associated with someone so.." Behind him, Sergeant Vasc - who was trying to shove him back into his seat - suddenly doubled over as the Doctor elbowed him in the stomach. "I demand to know the basis for that comparison!"  
  
"Surely, 'Doctor', you can understand our concern." Enaral spoke in a reasonable tone, gently bringing the audience's attention back to the main dais. "This 'Master' was also a gifted, if unorthodox, student at the academy. Like yourself, he chose to steal a time machine and squander his gifts on travel and irresponsible contact with other races. And when he neared the end of his final incarnation he became obsessed with prolonging his life. What is to prevent you from following the same path, now that you.."  
  
"Don't be any more of an idiot than you can possibly help, Enaral." There was a scandalized intake of breath from the crowd, which the Doctor chose to ignore. "This didn't happen as he 'neared the end of his final incarnation'. It couldn't even be called a mid-life crisis. He became obsessed with prolonging his life the moment he realized that no Time Lord lives forever. Seven or eight centuries, a few thousand years, it would never be enough. The Master was a raving lunatic long before he used up his last regeneration. He wasted his entire life trying to live longer. That was what drove him, and that was what brought about his every act of malice: a pure hatred for anyone who stood in his way."  
  
"Such as yourself," Enaral put in smoothly.  
  
"Well yes, since Gallifrean history has been so carefully 'edited' to remove all trace of him, there weren't that many other people interested in the problem. Wouldn't do to dwell on such an embarrassment, would it?"  
  
Enaral was distracted from the Doctor's acid tone by a functionary who leaned over and whispered something in the Speaker's ear. Enaral nodded.  
  
"An ominous description, Doctor. You seem to know a great deal about this 'Master'. Should we take measures to nullify this menace?"  
  
"Well, no. He has already been..nullified." That was an unpleasant story there, and not one he cared to talk about. Ever.  
  
"So you believe that Gallifrey has nothing more to worry about from the Master."  
  
"Not exactly," the Doctor admitted. "I discovered recently that the Master spent the last few hours of his..life..moving from place to place in time, creating incidents for me to deal with. Nothing serious; he was too certain that his final plan would succeed to bother making any concrete plans otherwise. There were just enough to be annoyances, anywhere he could predict I'd be in the future."  
  
"Interesting you should say that." There was something predatory in Enaral's expression. "How exactly would he know where you would be."  
  
"Well I imagine it would be rather difficult, what with an infinity of times and places to choose from. I suppose he could.."  
  
The Doctor's voice trailed off as the Time Lords seated on the main dais leaned forward in anticipation. "He's already been here, hasn't he?"  
  
The only answer was a chill silence.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"A human, one of the many you have had dealings with, is on Gallifrey." All of Enaral's talents as a public speaker couldn't keep the note of smug triumph from his voice. "Claims to have been forcibly brought here by the Master. Coincidentally, at the very same time you choose to return to a planet you have not set foot on for a thousand years. This could be construed as ample evidence that you have remained in contact with a known threat to Gallifrey. At the very least it is one more example of the disruption you have caused by meddling in time and allowing knowledge of this planet to be.."  
  
Caught completely off guard by this new information, the Doctor missed most of what Enaral was saying. "How long ago did this happen?"  
  
Enaral permitted himself a moment of genteel annoyance at the interruption. "We discovered the intruder a few hours before this hearing began. Considering the seriousness of this assembly, we thought it best not to mention the intrusion until.."  
  
"A friend of mine has been kidnapped, dragged across the galaxy to an alien world and held prisoner for hours and you thought it best not to mention it?!"  
  
The guards fell back in confusion as the Doctor bullied his way off of the platform, knocking aside the sergeant - who was still trying to shove him back into his chair - with a casual backhand to the chest. "Well?" he snapped, pausing to glance back at Enaral. "Where is this 'intruder' being held? The Tower I suppose. And an alien trespasser would be considered a political prisoner, so that would make it the eighteenth level, correct?"  
  
Enaral sputtered helplessly for a moment before managing to protest, "Doctor you have not been dismissed.."  
  
"I'll take that as a yes. Rassilon forbid that any changes should have been made in the last thousand years."  
  
Indulging in a dramatic sweep of his cloak, the Doctor spun about and strode through the doors.  
  
Not even Enaral's eloquence could restore order after this little scene. The courtroom soon emptied as the gathered Time Lords trailed along in the Doctor's wake. 


	2. Part 2

There had always been companions of one kind or another.  
  
Most were humanoid; some not so much. From his granddaughter Susan and on through a whole manner of races, the Doctor always managed to find someone like-minded to travel with. Well, as like-minded as possible. Which was generally not at all. It made for better arguments.  
  
Then one day he realized something. Not only did his companions always leave, he never had trouble letting them go. Oh, he enjoyed their company a great deal, and he regretted not having them around once they'd gone off for whatever reason. But that was the extent of it.  
  
He thought about that long and hard: how he could fight for his friends' safety tooth and nail, and then let them go so easily, replace them so quickly. Could it be that his travels really were a waste of his talents, as the Time Lords had always insisted? Was the presence of a companion just a substitute for the life he should have been leading on Gallifrey? Horrible thought, that. It would mean he was just using his companions as a distraction; tearing them away from their normal lives, and then letting them leave once they were thoroughly sick of his company.  
  
Seen in this light, one could understand the fairytales about dragon hoards. Steal any part of a dragon's treasure and it would react as though it had lost a child: screaming, wailing, massive amounts of destruction to everyone and everything within range. Then it either took the stolen item back, or it found something else just as good. A dragon with its treasure might bring new meaning to the word "mine," but in the end anything it lost was replaceable.  
  
So the Doctor started traveling alone. He refused to find another companion, even though it made him so lonely he ended up returning to Gallifrey years earlier than he'd planned. It wasn't right to expose his friends to all the dangers of his wandering and then treat them like trinkets he had become bored with. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair.  
  
Even more unfair to have one of them dragged back into the chaos of his life. It was obvious the Master had done this to destroy the Doctor's chances of being allowed to return to Gallifrey. Never mind that, he'd just have to do whatever he could to get his friend back home. As soon as he found his way thorough this blasted maze of a tower to the eighteenth level.  
  
For some reason he was deliberately not thinking about which friend would be waiting when he got there..  
  
* * *  
  
There aren't any maps for the eighteenth level or, for that matter, the entire tower. Maybe in Gallifrey's better days the warren of interlocking passages had been a pleasant challenge, a way to keep minds active and alert. Now it was filled with signs of decay: hallways coated in dust, lights dim with neglect, once-beautiful rooms where even the mortar used to seal them off was beginning to crumble.  
  
The Doctor didn't bother to ask directions, instead following the sounds of commotion to the largest chamber on the floor. He'd known the questioning would still be going on (and would draw a large number of onlookers; human intruders were rare) just as he'd known that Enaral wouldn't risk creating sympathy for the renegade Time Lord by having him detained.  
  
It was a wonder Gallifrean society had survived this long, when everyone in it was so predictable.  
  
When he finally reached the crowd, it was in a stark, high-ceilinged chamber, one he vaguely remembered from his academy years. Most of the illumination in the room came from tall narrow windows that drew the light to a point in the center of the floor. As he recalled, there would be some localized trick of acoustics there. Noises made inside that little circle of light would seem muffled to the person isolated there, while noises from outside it could come through clearly. It was the perfect place to intimidate a prisoner, to surround and question someone who could only see shadows, someone who could barely hear the sound of their own voice.  
  
Disgusting, really. The Gallifreans thought of themselves as being so superior, yet look at what all their advances in architecture and design had made: a spooky little room for bullies.  
  
There were the usual exclamations of "What is the meaning of this?!" when he barged in, trailing a reluctant entourage of Time Lords from his own trial. Enaral tried to show he was still in control by ordering for more light, and by motioning those already in the room to clear the way.  
  
The crowd parted to reveal the intruder - clad in the soft gray robes of a political prisoner - standing alone in the center of the room. Brave, but terribly frightened, and trying hard to be merely annoyed.  
  
It was her.  
  
He hadn't just hoped, but had somehow known..  
  
Her gaze passed over the incoming crowd and then, clever girl, went back to him, a flicker of hope in her eyes.  
  
"Doctor?"  
  
"Sarah Jane."  
  
Of course it was Sarah. The universe just wouldn't be playing fair otherwise.  
  
For a moment the Doctor couldn't say anything, couldn't do anything but stand there, grinning foolishly. All these years, and he had never admitted, even to himself, how much he would have liked to see her again.  
  
She hadn't moved or tried to speak again. She looked afraid to. So many people glaring, waiting for her to incriminate him in some way..  
  
"I've missed you," he said simply.  
  
Sarah blinked at this, and seemed about to cry.  
  
He held out his arms. "It's all right."  
  
She was across the room in an instant, clinging to him with all her strength.  
  
Murmurs of disapproval from the assembled echoed about the room. The Doctor barely noticed. He wrapped his arms and cloak tightly about his former companion. Nine incarnations for me and maybe ten years for her, he thought a little incoherently, and still the same difference in height. Somehow this was even more..fair. Like going back in time.  
  
"Sarah, are you all right?"  
  
"I'm all right I'm all right I'm all right, I think I'm all right anyway." Her eyes were shut tight and she was shivering but she kept her voice steady. "I didn't know what was going to happen, they told me I was proof you couldn't be trusted, they said they were going to take away my memories of this and you and everything and then maybe not even send me home.."  
  
The look that the Doctor turned on the crowd was so venomous that everyone nearby took a step backwards, and then pretended to be looking at something else.  
  
Meanwhile, Enaral had taken Sarah's place in the circle and was beginning his tirade again, something which seemed to be difficult for the other Gallifreans to ignore. The Doctor and his former companion soon found themselves virtually ignored by the entire gathering. For all intents and purposes, alone.  
  
"How did it happen?" the Doctor asked in a low voice, pulling the ridiculous cloak a little closer around them.  
  
"He caught me outside an antique store. It was too fast for anybody to notice and I was so stupid, I thought he was an old man in a raincoat." The words were coming faster and faster, but so quiet. He had to strain to hear them over the noise from Enaral's speech. "Just an old man who'd tripped and fallen by this great big clock, so I tried to help him up and then somehow we were inside the clock and he laughed the whole time and it felt like we were in there for days.."  
  
Lured in by her own kind-heartedness, taken on a nightmare ride in a cubicle of a time-machine with a lunatic, then left to be terrorized by a pack of advanced cowards. All so a bitter old man could say he'd ruined the Doctor's retirement.  
  
It was a shame that some people couldn't be killed more than a few dozen times.  
  
The Doctor held his friend, stroking her hair until the trembling had eased a little. He crooked a finger under her chin and gently tilted her face upwards. "Did he hurt you?" he whispered.  
  
Sarah shook her head once, sharply. She opened her eyes and managed a weak smile. "It..wasn't any fun at all, but I'm all right now."  
  
Breathing this out like a mantra, "I'm all right now, I'm better now," she pressed her forehead against his chest. The sounds from the assembly continued to flow over and around the two of them without notice.  
  
After a time he heard her sniffle, then "You're as tall as you used to be."  
  
Trying to figure out where Enaral was in his (obviously rehearsed) speech, the Doctor said absently, "I like to be consistent."  
  
Small shuddering laugh. "I did think you hadn't changed much. Not as much as you changed the last time. Probably why I still recognized you. I'd have thought you look a lot more different after so long. I mean it's been, well it's been at least.."  
  
"Twelve hundred years."  
  
It was the wrong thing to say. He knew it the moment the words were out of his mouth. He felt Sarah go all stiff and then, very slowly, raise her head.  
  
Oops, he thought. And, oh dear.  
  
"Twelve," she said. "Hundred."  
  
If the Doctor had looked down he would have seen her glaring up at him, the last traces of fear gone, lips pursed, eyes blazing. All the signs of Sarah In A Red Rage.  
  
He realized with a kind of horror that he was dangerously close to smiling.  
  
"So I made such an impression on you," she said through clenched teeth, "and you missed me SO much that you kept away for twelve. Hundred. Years?!"  
  
The Doctor covered his mouth with one hand, fighting for control. Don't laugh, he told himself, don't even smile, you'll just make it worse. Never mind that this was such a perfect Sarah thing to do. Never mind that this was the best he'd felt in decades.  
  
Sarah Jane's mad at me, he thought. All's well with the world.  
  
And of course it did make it worse. She pummeled him (not hard enough to really hurt) while he shook with silent laughter. "You insensitive," she hissed, "infuriating.do you have any idea how.." She stomped a foot, unable to think up enough names to call him.  
  
"Shhh, Sarah, hush." Still laughing, he managed with some difficulty to snag her fists and pull her close enough that she couldn't start kicking. "Be still now, it's almost time for us to go."  
  
"VAGABOND," Enaral roared, making them both jump. The speaker had brought his tirade to a fever pitch. "A shiftless wanderer, meddling in the flow of time, altering events at whim to suit his lack of designs, betraying our secrets to all and sundry! Is this what you would have?" he asked the enrapt audience. "To welcome back, perhaps even be led by, the likes of THIS?" Trembling with indignation, the Speaker swung his arm around to point accusingly at the renegade Time Lord.  
  
Enaral's timing was excellent, but the Doctor's was better. The second the audience turned to follow the Speaker's arm, the Doctor - standing with his arms and cloak wrapped protectively around Sarah - suddenly blazed with light. The two figures glowed brighter and brighter, until even Gallifrean eyesight was overwhelmed.  
  
Then the light died out, and the Doctor and Sarah were still there.  
  
For a moment of smoke-filled silence, no one moved.  
  
Then, chaos.  
  
To give them credit, the Gallifreans took only a moment to decide that the gunpowder smoke wasn't toxic. And they easily saw through the decoy the Doctor had left in his place. (Or so they said afterwards. In reality the guards had clubbed the Doctor's cloak to the ground before realizing it had been thrown over the half-blinded Sergeant Vasc. An honest mistake; heat of the moment and all..) . Then there were lots alarms going off, and shouted orders to shut down all point-to-point transfers in the area, while some people went around shooting temporal disrupters in random directions to short out the hidden teleport platform the Doctor must have smuggled in, and most of the others generally rushed about looking for some subtle or devious means of his escape. For a while, everyone was terribly busy.  
  
So busy, in fact, that it never occurred to anyone to look for a simpler explanation.  
  
Meanwhile, out the door and down the hall, the Doctor and Sarah had thrown aside all subtlety, and were simply making a run for it. 


	3. Part 3

"Quick, this way!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"This way, no wait, through here. Come on!"  
  
"What? Where? I still can't see!"  
  
"Well I told you to close your eyes."  
  
"I did!!"  
  
It was hard to hear through the sirens. In fact, with the wall of sound and the leftover blindness from the flash-powder explosion, it was almost impossible to think. That, and exhaustion was setting in, at least for Sarah. Not everyone has the stamina to be kidnapped, dragged through space and time by a madman who went back and forth between laughter and shuddering tears, held prisoner by a pack of aliens who enjoyed terrifying people and making them feel small, and then follow it all up with a marathon..they'd been running for hours! Well, at least an hour. Actually it had only been a few minutes, but it was just about her limit.  
  
Pulling his friend along by the hand, the Doctor turned a corner and rushed down a series of corridors where the sirens were blessedly muffled. The return of hearing and, gradually, sight didn't make Sarah feel any safer. Sooner or later someone would think to look closer than halfway around the planet, and then there'd be two prisoners instead of just one.  
  
She should remind the Doctor about this. She planned to do just that. In a minute. Once she could actually breathe..  
  
"Hold it!" The Doctor had stopped without warning; Sarah almost had the wind knocked out of her when she ran into his arm. "This is the place! Where.." He looked wildly in all directions while Sarah struggled to catch her breath. "It has to be here!" The Doctor pounded the wall in frustration..  
  
..except it only looked like that was what he was doing. The thumps had an odd cadence, all of them in a rough circle at a level with the Doctor's head. After a moment he paused, then pressed his palm flat on the wall and slid his hand clockwise.  
  
Just when Sarah expected a secret door to open it..didn't. Before she could ask what was going on, the Doctor had taken her by the shoulders and turned her to face away from him.  
  
"This will be a little difficult with two people," he muttered. "Lock-step with me now and look straight ahead. Right foot first: right, left, right, left, step sideways here.."  
  
Sarah had traveled with the Doctor enough to be almost sure he hadn't lost his mind.  
  
"..sideways again, right, left.."  
  
Hands still on her shoulders, the Doctor steered them through what felt like the steps of a dance.  
  
"Left here, step, now right. Back up just a little. All right now, walk!"  
  
Sarah marched down the hallway, the Doctor close behind. Whatever secret code the Doctor had used in all that had an interesting effect: nothing. The hallway hadn't changed. Behind her, Sarah heard the Doctor say in a pleased tone, "Just the way I remember it."  
  
"Doctor," She didn't dare to turn her head, and had to talk at him sideways. "They're still after us."  
  
"It's all right, Sarah," he said, strolling along beside her, utterly unconcerned.  
  
"But they're coming this way!" She halted, listening hard. "I think."  
  
"No no, don't stop." Taking her by the arm, he pulled her along at a slow walk. "They can't see us, so long as we keep moving. We're in a Pause."  
  
"What?" They reentered the main corridor, where the siren had been at its loudest. Now the alarm was oddly muffled, the piercing notes gone and the rest..dimmer. Stretched.  
  
"A Pause, a variation of the TARDIS's transdimentional bridge. We're sort of off to one side of the time flow." His voice took on a note of pride. "It's something I put together in my Academy days. I would have liked to make it so one could actually hold still without becoming visible, but that would have involved creating a temporary link to the Vortex without a TARDIS, while superimposing the link onto the physical plane, all of which would be.." He had to search for the right word. "..tricky."  
  
Ahead of them, a troop of soldiers came charging into view. Instead of people though, it swirled along the hallway as a wash of color and shifting forms. What had been a frantic babble of shouted commands was now a confused thrumming sound, something like voices heard from underwater.  
  
"If we were to stop walking they'd be able to see where we are. In a vague sort of way." The Doctor continued his explanation as the flow of guards went around, and through, wisps of color breaking off and drifting like smoke. "As it is they won't be able to see or hear us, even when we talk." He looked down at Sarah and added dryly, "Or breathe."  
  
Sarah blew out the breath she'd been holding. Looking over her shoulder, she watched the blurred images rush past, seem to flow up a wall as they rounded a corner, and disappear. "How many other people know about this?"  
  
"None actually." He stared down at his feet, then said wistfully, "I would have liked to show this off, especially to certain Time Lord professors who insisted the mathematics needed to make it didn't exist." The idea made him grin. "But I couldn't risk it. They never would have let this stay, and I had to have it. I needed a place like this, someplace to disappear to when the Academy became too dreary. It was mine, my own section of the Tower, set at an angle in time. Never was able to duplicate the effect anywhere else." A sideways glance. "You're the only person I've ever brought here."  
  
Sarah was watching the lamps as they pulsed slightly, their light settling to the ground like mist. "Mm," she said, not really paying attention. 


	4. Part 4

The entrance to the lifts couldn't even be seen through the riot of colors. Obviously, the search for the two escapees was in full swing. Just as obviously, it wasn't being handled very well. The Doctor and Sarah gave the tangled mess swarming the elevators one glance, and took the stairs.  
  
The distortions from the Pause were stronger here. Almost alive. The shadows appeared to have melded with the echoes, creating strange looming shapes that murmured quietly, or hovered just at the edge of vision . And there was something disturbing about how much the circular stairwell resembled a drain. A flicker of motion that was another person would overtake them, and then only continue down the stairs for so long when it would abruptly disappear. There wouldn't be any fading away, the colors would just wink out of existence. Every time it happened, the seemingly innocent stairs below them looked more and more sinister. When another troop of soldiers charged past them, the Doctor and Sarah were forced to cling to the railing as they walked, hanging on with eyes closed until the guards vanished. Neither had been able to watch; it had felt as if the rush of color was a current drawing them downward, to be swallowed up by the dimly lit spaces below. Spaces that felt too much like nothing.  
  
It was some time before the Doctor felt like speaking. Apparently one thousand years had been long enough to forget why he always took the lifts around here.  
  
"Well," he said, as cheerfully as he could, "This will take some time."  
  
Slight nod from Sarah.  
  
Concerned, he studied her face carefully. It wasn't like Sarah to be this quiet. "If you're tired," he said, noticing that she was starting to lag behind, "we can find a place to stop, once we're past these stairs. Someplace off to one side, where we won't be noticed."  
  
Not bothering to look up, she said dully, "Someone might hear us."  
  
"Not at all. The aural effects from the temporal displacement won't be negated the way the visual effects would be."  
  
She took a moment to translate that into layman's terms. "So even if someone could see us, they can't hear us?"  
  
"Even if we shout."  
  
"Good. TWELVE HUNDRED YEARS!!"  
  
She stormed downward in a fury, taking the steps faster than was really safe. The Doctor was hard put to keep from being trampled. "All that time without a word from you, Doctor! I've never met anyone so, so insufferably, don't you dare start laughing.."  
  
"I won't, I'm not, I'm trying very hard not to." He ducked as Sarah swung a fist wildly, almost losing her balance in the process. "You should wait until we're on level ground before you start hitting again. And it wasn't," he raised his voice to be heard over new insults, "It wasn't too long for you at any rate."  
  
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"  
  
Luckily, they'd just left the stairs and walked into a deserted section of the Tower. Otherwise, the Doctor might have worried about being heard, never mind the temporal displacement. Sarah could certainly yell..  
  
"And you're wrong, it was a long time. Ages and ages." She stomped away from him, pacing in a large circle while the Doctor stared, bemused. The dust-filled sunbeams from an opening high in the wall were lovely here, almost fluttering from the Pause effects. Calming. They had no effect whatsoever on Sarah's temper.  
  
"I thought you'd only be gone for a while, that you'd be back as soon as you'd finished whatever it was you had to leave me behind to do. And that wasn't South Croyden by the way." She stopped to give him a reproachful look. "Nowhere near. I was so far from home I had to take a train. I rode for hours, wanting to laugh it off as just another screw-up, and all I could think about was how much I wished you h-hadn't left."  
  
"Sarah.." he tried, hearts aching at the hurt in her voice.  
  
"You were gone for years! You never sent word to me, or Harry, or anyone! All that time wondering if you were all right, wondering why you were staying away so long, just one message years later with a gift you didn't even bring in person. I thought I'd go mad!"  
  
She stood in the path of a sunbeam and swatted irritably at the tendrils of light that swirled around her. "You asked me not to forget you and I didn't. I couldn't. It was always in the back of my mind, the idea that you might come back any day. You'd stroll in as if nothing had happened, as if you hadn't been gone for.." She choked a little, then tried to laugh. "That, or you'd be running for you life from some hideous something- or-other that was trying to take over the planet. Either way you'd be there, finally, and it would make up for all the time you'd been gone."  
  
All the time he'd been gone. It seemed like it should have been just a short while, compared to the ages he'd spent traveling. Ten years. Barely an instant. Not long enough to affect anyone.  
  
The two of them stared at each other from across the room, from across a breach of time that the Doctor had never imagined existed.  
  
"The Time Lords, they told me you were trying to come back to Gallifrey. To stay." Sarah took a deep breath, and tried to smile hopefully. "Weren't you ever coming back to Earth?"  
  
Reassurances and protests died in his throat. Somehow he'd made the decision without knowing it. He would never visit Earth again, never visit any of his human friends. They had their own lives. She, Sarah, had her own life. One more visit would have just dragged everything out of place for her again. It was better to let things go back to the way they were supposed to be. Better for everyone.  
  
He wished he could remember when he'd decided that.  
  
The look in his eyes gave Sarah all the answer she needed. "I must have been a fool," she said, knuckling away angry tears. "All that time wishing you'd come back, if only to say hello, when it's so obvious that I missed you more than you ever missed me."  
  
It wasn't as if this were the first time she'd lost her temper with him. Not a day went by when they had traveled together when she hadn't gotten at least a little annoyed. This was different. He'd hurt her, very badly, and now he was at a loss to make it better. "Sarah, that just isn't true." The Doctor started to walk over to her, to put a hand on her shoulder. The black look she gave him made him reconsider. "I hated to let you go, but you would have had to leave eventually. None of my companions have ever wanted to stay forever. Sooner or later they all chose to leave."  
  
"Yes," Sarah pounced on that. "They chose to leave. They weren't kicked out and then left behind for no reason."  
  
There were only the companions who had come before her to base that on but still.. She was right. Everyone else had chosen to leave, or circumstances had forced them to leave. She was the only companion whom he had actively chosen to send away, and for no other reason than because it was time for her to go.  
  
The argument had gotten a little sidetracked. "You couldn't have just gone on traveling with me," he said as gently as he could. "You had your own life to lead."  
  
Sarah let out a scream of frustration. "Of all the self-certain..Who are you to decide what my life ought to be?!"  
  
It was a perfectly ordinary question, and it took the Doctor completely by surprise. He hadn't decided, her life was just supposed to be a certain way, just like his life was supposed to be.. He stood for several seconds, mind racing, desperately trying to find what should have been an obvious reply.  
  
Then he smiled. "Nobody," he said to Sarah's baffled glare. "I'm a complete nobody to decide that for you." Before she could snap at him again he took her in his arms and rocked gently back and forth. "Or for me."  
  
"Don't..don't do that," she said, and then wrapped her arms around him. "I'm not finished being mad at you."  
  
"I know, Sarah. I know."  
  
What an awful lot of things he'd done lately because of a vague idea of what he "ought" to do. As if everything in life was a series of items on a checklist. "I've been a complete idiot. Do you forgive me?"  
  
There was a muffled "No," but she didn't loosen her grip. He chuckled a little.  
  
"I truly am sorry I took that decision away from you, Sarah. But I couldn't come back because.."  
  
His voice trailed off for some reason. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I couldn't come back..I..I couldn't.."  
  
Now, this was important  
  
Something in his voice made Sarah look up, startled. "Doctor?"  
  
This felt like being hypnotized, like having memories taken from him and being left with some rote-phrase to answer questions with. "..I couldn't.."  
  
The two of them stood frozen in place, Sarah's eyes full of concern, the Doctor staring forward, expressionless.  
  
Abruptly, he pulled away. "I couldn't come back," he told her, and walked off.  
  
The answer had all of the cold finality that a two-thousand-year-old Time Lord could muster, and it stopped Sarah in her tracks. For about two seconds. "Why?"  
  
"Because I.." He hadn't noticed the distortions of sounds outside the Pause for some time; now they were annoyingly loud. He put a hand to his forehead. "I..you know, I really hate change."  
  
It had been so long since he'd heard Sarah laugh, he'd almost forgotten what that sounded like until now. "Doctor that's just silly and you know it. If you aren't used to change at your age.."  
  
Her laughter faded as the Doctor started to walk away again. She ran to catch up with him, and took hold of his sleeve, her voice softer now. "Why? The real reason."  
  
Genuinely angry, he yanked his arm free from her grip and snapped, "Because, Sarah, there was too much left to do!"  
  
"I see." Her voice had gone icy. She didn't understand, not really. How could she? He didn't understand it himself. "I've never known you to put aside anything just because you were in a hurry. Now I'm supposed to believe that you didn't come back because you simply didn't have time?"  
  
No response to that. The path of the Pause led them into an ancient vault. Most of the lights had gone out here, and the ones left cast only a few beams of water-colored light that pooled across the floor. The Doctor kept walking. His head hurt, and more than anything, he wanted quiet. He tried to put distance and stone columns and shadows between them, but Sarah wouldn't be left behind, and she wouldn't be shouted down by silence.  
  
"Too much to do, hmmm? No time to waste? You had years, centuries, and you.."  
  
With terrifying speed the Doctor spun about and charged back out of the shadows. "Yes, Sarah, I had centuries!" Enraged, too furious to care that he was frightening her, he forced her to back up against the wall. "I had centuries and you didn't! I wouldn't stay for that, I won't.."  
  
"Oh so now I'm too mortal for you?!" She'd rallied in an instant. No one could intimidate Sarah for long. "I didn't know you had such a weak stomach."  
  
"That isn't it at all!"  
  
"Isn't it?!"  
  
The whole situation was absurd. They had practically the entire ruling class of Gallifrey hunting them down and yet here they were, right under the hunters' noses, shouting at each other. He should have found all of this hilarious. He would have laughed, if the anger weren't clawing at him from inside.  
  
"Sarah you can throw your little temper tantrum all you like but we are not going to discuss this."  
  
"Oh yes we are!"  
  
He tried to turn away, but she ran around him and planted herself in his path.  
  
"Get out of my way, Sarah."  
  
"I won't!" She defiantly stayed where she was, her hands balled into fists. "You can talk or not, or you can throw me out of the way, but I'M going to talk, and you're bloody well going to listen!"  
  
He could throw her out of the way if he wanted to, without any effort at all, and through all the rage he suddenly felt a thread of cold fear. He couldn't remember ever being this angry, not in all his centuries. It was a blind fury that could make him knock someone aside, pitch them into a wall or break them in half and he couldn't even look at Sarah for fear of that, because that would be, that would be..  
  
"Did it repulse you so much, Doctor? Did it just sicken you that I was going to grow older, while you could regenerate over and over and stay the same horrid person?"  
  
"No, I.."  
  
"You, a Time Lord with all the past and future at your disposal, with centuries of life to spare, and you couldn't stand to be in my presence for one more minute!"  
  
"You don't understand at all!" he roared. "If I'd let you stay it wouldn't have mattered how long I could live because.." He couldn't even imagine what he was trying to say, and then the words came rushing out, "Because once you were gone I wouldn't have wanted to live another day, much less another thousand years!"  
  
There.  
  
He'd said it. The real reason.  
  
This was why he'd left, and never gone back. This was why he was always just the tiniest bit glad when one of his short-lived companions decided to leave. They had never, none of them, been just amusements for him. And he had never grown tired of them. He had merely let them go, so reality wouldn't interfere with memories. And as for Sarah.  
  
He sank down against the wall, feeling strangely tired. "Ohhh Sarah, don't you see? I couldn't lose you like that. Not ever. If I stayed away, I could keep you alive. I kept you with me, living and breathing in my mind, for twelve hundred years."  
  
There didn't seem to be anything left to say.  
  
Sarah just stared at him. The poor thing was probably in shock. Understandable, seeing as how he'd responded to a simple tantrum by taking everything in his hearts and thrusting it in her face. He shouldn't expect her to, well, he shouldn't expect. That's all.  
  
Still, the silence hurt.  
  
Feeling a little foolish, and very hollowed out, the Doctor rested his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands, and stared at the floor.  
  
And then she was kneeling beside him, her arms around him. Beautiful, loving Sarah, who it turned out had missed him almost as much as he had missed her.  
  
"Stupid," she scolded, "foolish." She kissed his head and the back of his neck. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I never knew, I never dreamed.oh forgive me, you must have been so lonely."  
  
He looked up at this, into eyes that were filled with tears. She was hurting, for him now instead of just because of him. Suddenly it was the worst thing he could imagine, that she should hurt at all.  
  
He cupped her face with one hand, brushing aside a tear, and kissed her, softly.  
  
And then again, hard enough that she made a small startled noise in her throat.  
  
Half-afraid he would feel too alien to her, ready to let go the moment she tried to push away, he pulled her close until she was cradled in his arms. He twined his fingers in her hair, and kissed her mouth and face, trying to take away her tears, her pain. Trying to drink her like wine.  
  
.and Sarah, who had no intention of pushing away, could only cling to him, dizzy and half-fainting from the feel of him, the taste. Nothing that marked him as different mattered; she kissed the racing double-pulse in his throat, and stroked her fingers over alien skin that was as cool as someone who'd just come in from the cold.  
  
.and the Doctor felt as though he was holding something sweet and fragile that burned with fever.  
  
What a strange treasure I've been keeping all these years, he thought. And what a relief to let it go.  
  
Luckily, no guards wandered through that section of the Tower. It takes a lot of energy, having one's life turned upside down. Too much to consider moving, or talking, or even thinking, for at least a little while.  
  
They stayed there the entire night - the Doctor and his newest, perhaps last companion - lulled by the sighing echoes of the empty room, curled together, asleep in the Pause. 


	5. Part 5

They started walking again the next morning.  
  
After all the shouting the night before, the quiet between them was like a deep pool in a forest. There was a lovely stillness that they didn't feel like disturbing just yet. Plenty of time later for questions and bickering (And there would be some of that, without question. Neither of them was willing to do without it.) For now they kept to the occasional whisper, or a quick, almost shy, smile. It would take some getting used to, the idea that they both mattered to each other a great deal more that they had ever admitted, even to themselves.  
  
They walked hand in hand through the enemy Tower in almost unbroken silence, and for a while there weren't any problems in the universe.  
  
At least until they found the Doctor's TARDIS..  
  
* * *  
  
Sarah was with him, so that was all right. Better than it would have been otherwise. He might have been reduced to..well, he would have been reduced. Crushed. Having a part of oneself ripped away and stomped on can do that.  
  
"Isn't there.." Sarah clung to his hand as they walked to the door at the other side of the room. "Isn't there anything we can do?"  
  
"I'm afraid not. Look there." The Doctor pointed to the area just outside the room's main entrance. Sarah gasped at the flood of colors that had been waiting just out of sight. There were so many guards and weapons crowded into one space that wisps of color swirled all through the Pause distortion. "More at each entrance I'd guess. They'll have troops posted nine-deep around the old girl, ready to snatch us up the moment we stepped into real-time long enough to unlock the door. It's the first thing they figured I'd do." He looked back over his shoulder and heaved a sigh that seemed to come all the way from his boots. "Well, want to do anyway."  
  
Their search for the TARDIS had come to nothing. The ancient time machine, an almost constant presence in the Doctor's life since his travels began, had been dragged to a refinery, and was next in line to be scrapped. The TARDIS' time-traveling mechanism they found pushed to one side, trailing torn wires, broken into pieces.  
  
Odd that the Time Lords had known how to break into the TARDIS without a key, and without damaging the door. They had to have had some very specific information about how it had been built. Did their records really go back that far? Or had the Master somehow told them what to do? He would probably never know. The Master wasn't available for questions anymore, and the after this the Doctor didn't think he'd be on speaking terms with the Time Lords for a very long time. If ever.  
  
"Doctor I'm so sorry.."  
  
"It's all right, Sarah. I should have realized the Time Lords had this planned when the Castellan didn't show up for my trial. If you could call it a trial. More like a diversion. See that break there, where they cut through the stabilizer?" He pointed to center section of the time- traveling mechanism. "Look at the edges. Melted through. That wasn't done in just an hour. It takes time to do that kind of damage; and even more time to get through all the safeguards I installed." He shook his head wearily. "I thought they were trying to decide if I could stay, when in reality they were calculating how closely I'd be guarded for the rest of my life. Old obsolete model number 40; Enaral must have had her brought to the refinery the moment after I invited myself to Gallifrey. They never planned to let her leave. Or me." He took one last look as they left the chaos of the refinery behind. "Poor thing. Come on."  
  
"Come on where? How are we supposed to get off the planet now?"  
  
"Oh," the Doctor said in his most casual tone. "I'll just have to borrow another TARDIS."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Well it's been almost two thousand years since I borrowed the first one. I should get in some practice. Otherwise I might get rusty."  
  
* * *  
  
"There."  
  
"That?!"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Doctor, even I can see it's not finished yet."  
  
"Perfect! That means it's their latest model."  
  
"So instead of quirks from a machine that's too old, we'll have bugs from a machine that's too new."  
  
"Comforting thought, isn't it."  
  
This was clearly one of those times when arguing wouldn't work. The Doctor had made up his mind, taking them past several temptingly unguarded storage rooms (or berths, or parking lots, or whatever it is you call a place you put time-machines in) to get here. The room didn't look any different from the refinery where they'd left the old TARDIS; it had the same combination of sterility, mind-boggling precision, and raw force. Appearances aside, the Doctor insisted that it was one of Gallifrey's research and development laboratories. And there at the far side of a room, on a low pedestal surrounded by some rather dangerous looking machinery, was the product of some of that research: a bizarre-looking time-machine.  
  
Bizarre that is, in that one generally didn't expect to find a bright-green- with-white-trim tool-shed on an alien world.  
  
"I still don't see how you plan to walk off with that thing, and with the entire planet waiting for you to appear."  
  
"Nothing simpler. The Time Lords will be waiting for me to take back the old TARDIS, or borrow another obsolete model, the way I did before." Sarah had noticed the Doctor's use of the word "borrow" in place of "steal", but decided not to comment. "No one would expect me to take a prototype from right under their noses." There was a long pause while he took various instruments out of his trouser pockets, then he added, "I also studied all the security protocols and systems for this entire area and designed a few new lock-breaking tools before I came back to Gallifrey. But really, it's the element of surprise that counts."  
  
Unbelievable. "I thought you'd planned to just retire quietly on Galifrey."  
  
"Well I thought I had. Get ready now."  
  
"What, right now?" Sarah looked around nervously. "When will we leave the Pause?"  
  
"We left it about two seconds ago. Run."  
  
"You mean we've..wha, HEY!" The Doctor was already halfway across the room, leaving her to race to catch up.  
  
By the time she reached the TARDIS the Doctor was hard at work on the lock, doing something to it that made her eyes hurt.  
  
"Temporal trap field connected to the lock," he explained. "Engineers always think these things are so threatening." A grimace of pain crossed his face as his hands appeared to double, then vanish, then reappear slightly blurred. "Which is understandable."  
  
There was a sudden hissing sound, almost below hearing.  
  
"Doctor.."  
  
"I hear it." The lock stubbornly refused to budge, and the hissing was getting louder. Beads of sweat stood out on the Doctor's forehead. "That'll be something to knock us out until Security gets here. That, or it'll kill us. It all depends on how secret this TARDIS is supposed to be. Just a few more seconds.."  
  
Sarah scanned the room frantically, looking for anything, anything at all that could help. Knowing the Time Lords, whatever gas they were flooding the room with wouldn't be something they could escape by holding their breath. She could almost see the gas getting closer and closer, turning the very air against their skin into poison..  
  
Inspiration struck as her gaze lit on what looked like a piece of welding equipment. Not even stopping to think, she picked up the heavy piece of machinery and swung it into a bank of computers with all her strength.  
  
Electricity crackled and arced (she'd let go just in time); there was a satisfying explosion, then fire and a great deal of smoke poured from the crumpled monitors. "Hurry!" she screamed at the Doctor, who had paused for an instant to stare in open-mouthed wonder. "We've only got seconds left!"  
  
Her words were almost drowned out by the clang of doors slamming shut, and then the room was filled with the howling roar of wind rushing through hidden vents.  
  
The best way to put out a fire without breaking anything is to simply take away the air.  
  
Sarah's vision had gone blurred with shocking suddenness. The ruse had taken away the approaching gas, but gained them a few moments at best. Already the fire had gone out, and there wasn't enough oxygen left to breathe. Everything went silent as all sound left with the air.  
  
The Doctor managed at last to pry the door open, shaking his fingers as the lock spitefully bit him with a last spark. Gasping, Sarah stumbled inside, the Doctor pushing from behind. He cycled the door shut and dove for what Sarah could only hope was a control panel (impossible to see through the growing blackness).  
  
And then just like that, her vision cleared and she could breathe again.  
  
The Doctor and Sarah looked across the room, caught each other with identical expressions of gasping for air, and burst out laughing.  
  
"Well I'm glad that.." "However did you.."  
  
Another laugh.  
  
"You first," Sarah giggled, then, "no, wait," it was suddenly necessary to not be standing anymore, "..just a minute.."  
  
The Doctor was next to her in a moment, lowering her gently to the floor. "Easy now, deep breaths, no don't try to get up.."  
  
"Fine, I'm fine, just dizzy is all." She tried to stand, but the room kept pitching to one side. "Are we all right? Did we get away?"  
  
"Yes yes, we're well away. The TARDIS is already in the Vortex." The Doctor helped her to sit upright, smoothing a strand of hair away from her face. "That was very quick thinking back there." His tone was frankly admiring. "However did you know that would work?"  
  
"Newspapers do something like that when the presses catch fire," She rested her head on her arms, trying to blink the room back into focus. "They take away the air by filling the whole," she took another deep breath, "press room with carbon dioxide in a few seconds."  
  
"Im 'press' ive."  
  
"You stop that." She tried to glare, but the smile ruined the effect. "None of your awful jokes."  
  
"Until you're feeling better."  
  
"Deal."  
  
They shook hands gravely. "Now that that's settled, I think it's time we got as far away from this planet as possible. Are you ready to leave?"  
  
"I suppose so." Sarah hadn't bothered to get up from the floor; her legs still felt unsteady. The Doctor of course was annoyingly unaffected, standing up and moving about the controls without a trace of fatigue. "Maybe we should have a look about your new time-machine before we rush off to who-knows-where."  
  
"Plenty of time for that later. The controls aren't too different from the old ones; everything else is just scenery." He thumped a console admirably. "This will be just fine. Better than the last, really."  
  
All of this sounded a little too bright, a little forced. He could be putting up a brave front for her sake, or for his. Not sure of his mood, Sarah asked timidly, "Isn't there anything we could take from the old TARDIS as a memento?"  
  
The Doctor smiled, but without much humor. "Yes, we could take its computer memory as a memento. Also its _______ and _______, and I might even be able to fit the _______ through the door." Sarah's mind blanked out the terminology. The words were nothing she could understand, and it annoyed her that the Doctor already knew that. He continued, a touch condescendingly, "All of this is beside the point, because we'd be captured the moment we materialized outside the old TARDIS."  
  
Nettled, Sarah shot back, "Well why don't we just materialize inside it then?"  
  
The Doctor's head snapped around. "What?"  
  
Speaking very slowly, she explained, "We could take this TARDIS inside the other one." At the Doctor's blank expression she clarified, "I mean, the way I understand it, or at least the way you've explained it, a TARDIS materializes by creating a gate between the place inside the TARDIS and anywhere in the universe, right? " The Doctor nodded. "Well, the inside of the TARDIS is part of the universe, so bringing one TARDIS inside another would be like creating a gate between the two.."  
  
The Doctor was staring at her so intently that she trailed off. "Or has that been tried before?"  
  
"Oh probably, probably," the Doctor replied, turning back to the console. "I've had so many amazingly clever ideas in my time, I can't possibly be expected to remember them all."  
  
A wide range of emotions passed over Sarah's face: annoyance and disappointment, then surprise at the back-handed compliment, and finally a delighted grin which she quickly suppressed before the Doctor looked up from the controls.  
  
"We'll try it." 


	6. Part 6

The lights dimmed, flickering with protest at the strain, then almost went out completely. Various pieces of machinery (which had been surprisingly silent up to this point) began to make noises very much like a model 40 TARDIS limping and struggling with age.  
  
For a few seconds the room felt alarmingly sideways. Then the control room shivered, and everything settled with a thump.  
  
There was a moment of silence, during which nothing exploded, or caught on fire, or disappeared. The Doctor and Sarah peered around the edge of the console.  
  
The Doctor cleared his throat. "I wasn't quite sure that would work."  
  
He remembered that he was supposed to have done this before. "This time. Wasn't sure it would work this time. Every TARDIS is different. Well, the two I've used have been different. Nothing I can't work around of course."  
  
"Of course," Sarah agreed, not moving from behind the console. "Do you think it's safe to open the door?"  
  
"I can't think of any reason why not."  
  
"I can. Lot's of 'em."  
  
It was almost disappointing when, after all that anticipation, the door opened and everything continued to not blow up, catch on fire, or disappear. Although it was quite an effect.  
  
The two of them stood in the doorway, facing away from the control room of the TARDIS, and stared into the control room of the TARDIS.  
  
"This is making me dizzy," Sarah said wryly.  
  
"It's amazing, just amazing." The Doctor strode into the old TARDIS, and looked with delight at the new TARDIS (which still resembled a bright-green- with-white-trim potting shed) sitting at the edge of the control room. "Good thing I knew when the old girl was going to be here, or this might not have worked."  
  
"When exactly are we?" Sarah hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to step across the doorway. She had the unsettling idea that she might look around a corner and find another Sarah-Jane looking back.  
  
"We're several hours after I first arrived on Gallifrey. This was the earliest time I could find when someone wasn't messing with the TARDIS. Thought maybe I could save the old girl. No such luck though. I was absolutely right about Enaral, he must have ordered the break-in as soon as I'd turned my back."  
  
There was in fact a gaping hole where a large bank of controls had been. "Lucky for us he didn't take out the dimensional gate too, or it might have been a little crowded in here.  
  
"Just a little," Sarah said weakly, even less eager now to leave the doorway.  
  
"Best get to it. We've got about half a day's worth of time before anyone thinks to look in here." He knelt before a large panel and took something out of his pocket. Sarah thought she saw him try to keep whatever it was out of sight, but a familiar high-pitched humming noise gave it away.  
  
"Doctor, isn't that your old sonic screwdriver?" Ten years ago she'd decided she was sick of even looking at the Doctor's favorite gadget. Now she smiled at the sudden flood of memories.  
  
"Mostly." There was an almost sheepish note in the Doctor's voice. "It's actually more of a descendent, the Sonic Screwdriver Mark.." and here his voice faded to an unintelligible mumble.  
  
"I didn't catch that. Mark what?"  
  
"Eleven hundred six. Now don't.." Sarah had interrupted him with a peal of laughter. "I had to make some improvements," he said defensively.  
  
"I can imagine, but over a thousand?"  
  
"Well yes, that, and my tenth incarnation was a bit clumsy. Look, do you mind.."  
  
"Just going." Sarah walked back inside the new TARDIS, still laughing, and left the Doctor to his work.  
  
* * *  
  
It didn't take long to demolish the TARDIS' control panel. As with most things, taking it apart was much easier, and faster, than putting it back together was going to be.  
  
Not everything could be salvaged. The dimensional gate would have to stay, for obvious reasons. The time traveling mechanism was beyond repair (as well as being beyond reach) and anything near the gaping hole in the control panel had been partly melted, to prevent its ever being fixed.  
  
Everything else was surprisingly small, once each piece had been lifted free. After some bullying, the Doctor managed to annoy Sarah enough to make her cross the doorway and help him with the bulkier pieces.  
  
None of it was in terribly good condition. A couple thousand years of traveling will do that. Great care was going to be necessary when reattaching everything, so the old machinery wouldn't go into shock from waking up in a new TARDIS. The Doctor imagined he have to work for years putting all of it in place.  
  
He was quite looking forward to it.  
  
* * *  
  
Everything was finally aboard the new TARDIS. Sarah had kept busy while the Doctor worked, finding some food, and bringing over those possessions that the Doctor wanted to keep. Which wasn't much. He seemed to have gotten leery of hoarding anything away.  
  
There hadn't been a sound from the old TARDIS for over an hour when Sarah tentatively stepped back across the doorway.  
  
She found the Doctor standing in the center of what was left of the main control room, lost in thought.  
  
"You're awfully quiet," she said. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Hm?" He looked up. "Yes. Just thinking."  
  
"About?"  
  
"About how tired I am," he gazed about the ancient TARDIS thoughtfully. "So very tired of all the interference from this planet."  
  
It was sadly quiet in the demolished room. The ever-present noise from the TARDIS' machinery had been silenced, and most of the winking lights had gone dark, or were gone altogether. The Doctor wandered the control-room slowly, running a hand over a panel here, pausing to touch a row of dials there. "It's amusing when you think about it. The Master brought you here to destroy my chances of ruling Gallifrey. I'm sure he didn't even consider the idea that I never wanted to rule, or even stay."  
  
"Sour grapes, Doctor?" Sarah couldn't resist asking.  
  
"Stop that." There was enough of a twinkle in the Doctor's eyes that she couldn't take offense at the chiding tone. "I would hope I've established what, and who, I really want."  
  
Satisfied that he'd made his point (the smile he'd given her had quite taken her breath away) he turned back to the ruined controls. "So much time wasted," he mourned. "Having to hear again and again that I should return to Gallifrey. 'The Duty of A Time Lord'. Piffle. A duty that requires you to never do anything, never speak with anyone, never lift a finger unless existence itself is in danger, thousands of years spent watching from a distance and making 'tut tut' noises. No wonder they were forever calling on me to fix things; they've never solved a single problem on their own planet, much less anyone else's. Well I'm done with them. Let them solve their own problems. I've got my hands full with the rest of the universe."  
  
"Hear hear," Sarah chimed in. Softly. The Doctor was scowling at the melted hole where part of the TARDIS had been ripped away.  
  
"I never actually believed it of course, that my travels were nothing but a waste of my talents. But for a while I was so tired of having to justify myself that I came to believe I was wrong for not wanting more. Before I walked into that Tower room, I was actually about to end all my wandering and settle down on a planet that bored me, in a society I disliked. Not, mind you, because anyone wanted me there (which they didn't), or because I wanted to, but because I thought I wanted to want to." Sarah laughed at this, making the Doctor smile again. "Oh I know the Time Lords aren't entirely to blame. I was the one who decided that it made sense to do what I hated, and hope that it would make me content simply because it was supposed to. But I can't be blamed for being just a little annoyed, especially since I almost gave away my last chance at happiness."  
  
The remark was tossed off casually, but he reached over and took her hand as he said it. "I insist on being allowed to think for myself, to choose for myself. I am, after all, an adult."  
  
He held her hand against his face for a moment, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, it was with his wickedest grin. "Now I'm going to play a mean trick and make them all sorry. Coming?"  
  
Sarah nodded eagerly, and returned the grin.  
  
* * *  
  
What happened next took a bit of time. Several bits actually, put together rather differently.  
  
Managing the different time fields was an interesting puzzle, if an insanely complicated one. Just keeping track of what had been put where, and when, was difficult enough.  
  
Here's how it worked, roughly. First, walk back into the new TARDIS and materialize it into the control room of a completely different TARDIS, in an adjoining storage-room. Then, walk into the control room of this completely different TARDIS and time-travel it (the new TARDIS still inside the control room) into place. Then walk back into the new TARDIS, take it into another completely different TARDIS.  
  
Again, insanely complicated.  
  
Things became even more complicated when each machine had to be stolen from its berth a few seconds before the last had been taken, meaning that they were always a few seconds ahead of any alarm that could be raised. Then, to make sure they didn't try to materialize inside a machine that wasn't in place yet, each TARDIS they took needed to be moved through time to a few seconds after the last one had been placed.  
  
The math involved could give blinding headaches. Sarah lost count at twelve and refused to stay in one place, insisting on walking through each door along with the Doctor. She wasn't so much afraid of getting lost, as she was of having a room disappear around her.  
  
Of course that would never happen, at least according to the Doctor. Never, most likely never, probably not. And no, the TARDIS didn't shudder as it materialized, it was just her imagination. Mostly.  
  
Sarah crowded through the door in step with the Doctor, leaving the last stolen TARDIS behind.  
  
* * *  
  
It wasn't until the TARDIS was safely back in the Vortex that Sarah was able to relax. "I don't think we should push our luck any further."  
  
"One more stop." The Doctor was bent over a square fragment of metal on the console. "I want to leave this outside the old girl before we go."  
  
"We're really cutting it close," she warned. "This would be the perfect time for someone to find us and start yelling 'Halt!' or 'Stop Thief!' or something like that.  
  
It didn't look as though he'd heard. Curious, she peered over his shoulder. The Doctor was using the sonic screwdriver to write a note on the scrap metal in glimmering blue letters.  
  
"There Will Be No More Practical Jokes," it read in a surprisingly elegant hand, "As Long As You Leave Me Alone."  
  
"A-HEM," Sarah said loudly.  
  
"What?"  
  
Sarah glared at him, then at the note, then back at him. She raised her eyebrows and waited.  
  
After a moment's hard thought, the Doctor figured it out. Passing the makeshift pen over the note, he changed the word "Me" to "Us".  
  
Sarah nodded. "Better." 


	7. Part 7

The TARDIS materialized inside a quiet and orderly refinery. No guards milled around the entrances, and no alarm had been raised.  
  
They stepped out of the TARIDS, having returned to the moment in time just before their escape from the Time Lord assembly. Since they technically hadn't escaped or stolen anything yet, there wasn't any danger of being discovered, or even hunted for. Or so the Doctor said. Sarah, following nervously a few paces behind, wasn't convinced.  
  
The Doctor set down the note and paused to take one last look around.  
  
Somewhere in the Tower, a renegade Time Lord was walking into a room to find something he'd foolishly left behind long ago.  
  
In the TARDIS docks, fifteen separate time machines were about to disappear.  
  
And here in the refinery sat a small, well-worn, hopelessly outdated TARDIS, alone and looking almost forlorn. Inside it was another TARDIS, with another inside that, and another inside that..fifteen deep, each a few seconds off from the next, like a stack of blocks balanced on their corners.  
  
Probably, the Time Lords would figure out what had happened before the old TARDIS was destroyed. Possibly. They didn't have any reason to go inside it, and any links they had to the fifteen missing machines would be showing some confusing images.  
  
Even if they did figure it out in time, the process of pulling the whole stack apart would take a long while, (none of the other Time Lords had quite the grasp of math that the Doctor did) and would have to be done very, very carefully. He didn't think anything cataclysmic would happen if any part of the stack was pushed too hard. At least, he was fairly sure about that.  
  
Adjusting the note so that it was propped up next to the TARDIS, he patted the machine fondly, then pulled out the little chain with the key he always carried. The Doctor locked the TARDIS for the last time and, with a sharp tug, snapped the key off in the lock.  
  
One more thing for the Time Lords to deal with.  
  
"Ready?" Sarah asked the Doctor, who was smiling brightly and swinging the broken key by its chain.  
  
"All done."  
  
"Good. I think we should get out of here before.."  
  
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"  
  
They turned around slowly, Sarah saying ugly things under her breath. The Doctor was most annoyed.  
  
"Really, this is most annoying," he told the two guards who had burst into the room with their weapons drawn. "I had no idea that everyone on this planet had gotten so good at being difficult."  
  
This was ignored with typical Gallifrean lack of patience. "That's far enough, 'Doctor'. We have orders from Sergeant Vasc to keep you from reaching your TARDIS in the event you escaped from the Tower."  
  
"Sergeant Vasc ordered that, did he? That's rather selfish of him, I must say. I certainly hope he gets clubbed to the ground by his own troops. Well whatever you're going to do you'd better make it fast," he said as the guards raised their weapons, "because we're escaping from the Tower as we speak."  
  
An escape alarm split the air.  
  
"Yes, and we've just taken a few of your time machines," Sarah put in helpfully.  
  
The alarm took on a new, slightly desperate note.  
  
Weapons still raised, the guards looked from the Doctor to Sarah, bewildered. The transceivers clipped to their belts were shouting what would have been some very confusing orders, even if they could have been heard clearly through all the noise.  
  
"Now please don't worry," the Doctor said in his most reassuring tone. "It's all right. Your superiors will completely understand how you could have let us escape, especially if you tell them about..THIS."  
  
Sarah had just enough time to cover her eyes.  
  
* * *  
  
At least an hour would have to pass before the guards could do anything besides scrabble blindly for their weapons on the floor. They'd been standing closer to the flash-powder explosion than the Time Lords had been earlier.  
  
"Doctor," They could just barely hear Sarah's voice trailing off in the distance, "How could we have moved the TARDIS's if they vanished now?"  
  
"Because they hadn't vanished then."  
  
"But they're gone now."  
  
"Which they wouldn't be, if we hadn't taken them then."  
  
"Ooh, I give up. It's enough to make anyone's mind hurt."  
  
"Would it help to think of it as a loop in time that we've traveled on and passed, but which doesn't exist now for anyone else?"  
  
"No as a matter of fact that doesn't help at all!"  
  
The sound of a TARDIS dematerializing rose over their voices and then faded. Soon only the helpless noises from the alarms were left.  
  
* * *  
  
Certain things about the new TARDIS were going to take some getting used to.  
  
The Chameleon circuit, for one. It had been broken for so long in the old machine that the Doctor had completely forgotten the thing even existed.  
  
"Now that is excessive." The Doctor glared with distaste at the TARDIS, which had disguised itself as a lamp, a potted fern, and a section of red- and-gold wallpaper. "Just a wasteful amount of effort. Vulgar frivolity. Why it's no wonder the whole lot turned so lazy and complacent."  
  
A well-dressed man and woman coming around the corner were treated to the sight of a solitary figure who was standing in the middle of the hallway and saying rude things to the wall. Without a word the couple turned about and went to find a more normal hallway to walk in.  
  
A moment later Sarah stepped out from behind the lamp. This was a neat trick, as the lamp was about a fifth her height and bolted to the wall besides. "I say!" She looked around in delight. "I can remember some times when that would have come in handy."  
  
"Wouldn't have been worth it, really. Encourages all sorts of bad habits."  
  
Well you've already got two thousand years worth of good habits built up, so I shouldn't think you need to worry."  
  
"True, true."  
  
If anyone had chanced to walk by they would have seen the Doctor carefully locking a section of the wallpaper pattern. He pocketed the key (very similar to the old one, which was now a trinket on a chain around Sarah's neck) and took his companion's hand. "Let's have a look around."  
  
At first glance the passage they were in had all the marks of a high- class hotel: thick burgundy carpet, old-fashioned wall scones for lamps, waiters hurrying to and fro. Closer inspection, and the faintest trace of movement in the floor, revealed it to be something slightly different.  
  
They had landed on, of all places, a ship.  
  
Sarah didn't know much about ships, but she could guess that this was a large one, and years before her time. It appeared to be one of the grand floating palaces that used to carry the very rich (and a lower deck full of the very poor) across the Atlantic.  
  
They drew a few stares from the aforementioned rich as they made their way outside. The two of them did make an interesting picture: the Doctor in his comfortably simple clothes, and Sarah still wearing her gray robe (which she was surprised to find she rather liked). What the other passengers must think Sarah couldn't imagine, but no one made any comment. The Doctor hadn't lost any of his charm or self-assurance, and if there's one constant on any planet, it's that people will accept the most remarkable things rather than get into an argument they know someone else will win.  
  
* * *  
  
Sunset is arguably the best time to be at sea, especially aboard an ocean liner like the one the Doctor and Sarah found themselves on. Look behind, and one can see the ship towering above, its lights just coming on, about to turn into a floating, sparkling castle. Look ahead, and there's the sun drifting down to meet the endless water, pulling along behind it a drift of rose-colored light, the blue-black night sky, and a glittering net of stars.  
  
"So where are we?" Sarah asked as they stepped outside to the ship's rail. The Doctor took a moment to answer, savoring the clean air and the last traces of the sunset.  
  
"Well I set the randomizer, so I'm not entirely sure." At Sarah's panicked noise the Doctor hastened to add, "I did set a couple of limits. Earth, and in the late 1800's, so there's enough technology to be comfortable, and no major wars. History calls it a Golden Age, although," here he nodded towards the few well-to-do persons lingering on the promenade, "you did have to be of a certain class to enjoy it."  
  
"Shouldn't be any trouble for us. I seem to remember you being able to invite yourself into any class you pleased."  
  
"There's always room for a couple more guests. Although come to think of it, it might be a bit more difficult here, since the guest list is already set once the boat leaves the dock. At any rate, I thought we could do with a quick holiday before I brought us home."  
  
He glanced sideways for approval at the use of the word "us". Sarah grinned impishly up at him.  
  
"And where will home be then? I can't imagine you're done traveling, and I'm having a hard time picturing you quietly settled down in South Croyden with me and K-9."  
  
"Dear old K-9, how is he doing?"  
  
"Oh he's fine. Actually he's a bit tired, if you can use that word in relation to a robot dog. There aren't many people who can do maintenance on someone like K-9. Not in my time anyway."  
  
"A little worn out, is he? I suppose he's had a lot to do keeping up with Miss Smith, field journalist extrordinare. That is assuming you've become the successful writer and reporter you set out to become." At Sarah's shy nod he went on, "Always knew you would be. You'll have to bore me to death with the details some time. Ow." Sarah had poked him in the side. "No, honestly I'm looking forward to it. And don't worry about K-9, with a little work he'll be as good as new. As to settling down in South Croyden, well you never know. I've never been a homeless wanderer. The TARDIS is my home, and the rest of the universe is just outside the front door. Including South Croyden."  
  
"When you can find it."  
  
"Yes, well, with a new TARDIS that won't be quite so difficult. I wouldn't want to drag you all across space and time with no way of getting you back. You have your own life to lead.."  
  
"Doctorrrr.." Sarah gave him another warning poke.  
  
"Ouch. As I was saying, you have your own life to lead and so do I, so we'll just have to figure out how to combine the two." He looked out over the water and then said softly, "I mean, if you'd rather, that is."  
  
Sarah could count on one hand the number of times the Doctor had asked for something, really asked, rather than just assuming someone would go along with him. She could just barely see his face from where she stood, and there was something in his expression, something a little lost and a little scared, that was almost more than she could bear. She put an arm around his waist. "Silly. You don't even have to ask."  
  
They stood quietly for a while and watched the stars slowly cover the sky.  
  
After a long moment Sarah asked, "Are you still worried about, well I mean.."  
  
"Always," he said in a deep voice. Then he squeezed her shoulders in a quick reassuring hug and continued, much more cheerfully, "But then that just means I have no more guarantees about the future than anyone else in the universe. And it's about time I realized it. There's no sense in giving one's life over to worrying about things that may happen." He stood musing for a while, then said thoughtfully, "I don't think I'll be quite so careful now as I've been."  
  
Sarah guffawed at this. The Doctor gave her a wounded look. "Careful with people, I mean. Was I really so reckless with everything else?"  
  
"Only everyday!" She relented, seeing the Doctor's slightly hurt expression. "Oh it wasn't so bad. I know I used to complain about all that aimless wandering, never knowing where we'd end up next, or who'd be mad at us when we got there, having to put up with your smugness, and your silly remarks, and your bad manners, and your awful clothes, ouch, that tickles. Don't!" She shrieked and tried to pull away, but the Doctor had his hands locked around her waist. "Let go you bully!"  
  
"There had better be a "however" tacked onto that sentence," he growled.  
  
"HOWEVER," she gave up trying to pull loose and simply grabbed his shirt collar and dragged his face close to hers. "I would rather have all that, and you, than not. In fact I don't think you're going to be able to get rid of me. Not ever."  
  
The Doctor let go of her waist and took her face in his hands. "Beautiful Sarah, you have to be the most amazing creature in the entire universe."  
  
"Next to you, of course."  
  
"Of course."  
  
He tilted her head back and kissed her, long and deeply, and all the well- dressed people around them pretended not to stare.  
  
* * *  
  
Cold, and the rising fog from the ocean, eventually drove them back indoors.  
  
"It really is a lovely old ship, don't you think, Sarah?" They were wandering the decks at this point, hand-in-hand. This resulted in Sarah being dragged about as the Doctor went from one point of interest to another, but she was in much too good of a mood to care. "I'd almost say it looks like a ship from the White Star Line."  
  
"Not the 'Titanic' I hope," Sarah said with a shudder.  
  
"Posh. Of course not. It's too small, and it's too old by at least a couple of decades. Excuse me." The Doctor snagged a passing waiter by the arm. "Could you tell me what ship this is?"  
  
Several possible excuses for this odd question went through Sarah's mind. Most of them involved senility, or drug-induced confusion. Instead she found herself saying with a winning smile, "Only you see we've come a long way and some of these ships are so hard to tell apart, don't you agree?"  
  
The waiter transferred his bewildered stare from the Doctor to Sarah, then back to the Doctor. "This..um..this is the Holland-America ship 'Veendam'."  
  
The Doctor scratched his head in puzzlement. "Well that doesn't help a bit. The 'Veendam'? No, doesn't ring a bell."  
  
With the poor man's expression growing more and more confused, it looked like a good time to leave.  
  
The waiter continued to stare blankly after them as they walked away. The Doctor called out, "Thanks anyway. You wouldn't happen to know what year it is?" just before Sarah said, "Shush!" loudly, and hustled the Time Lord out of the hallway.  
  
* * *  
  
"Strange, I could have sworn this was a White Star Line ship. Oh well, not important. The ship's Captain should be able to sort out a cabin situation for us, if we ask him nicely. We'll go hunt him up in a minute. I want to see if there's some kind of sitting room about; maybe it'll have a recent newspaper. Let's see, something like that would be on this deck, down this hall I think, through here, blast it, there's a dance going on. Well they'll just have to let us play through."  
  
"Doctor.." Sarah halted at the doorway to the ballroom, a little daunted by all the jewels and severe expressions. "Maybe we should.."  
  
"Oh no, no more 'shoulds' Sarah, no more 'oughts'." Pulling her along by the hand, he marched through the center of the room. "There's no time for any of that." He suddenly took both her hands and spun her along with him in a dance that had little to do with the stately music being played. "There's still so much to do," he cried merrily, "and the tea's still getting cold!"  
  
Sarah could only laugh helplessly, not having the faintest idea what the Doctor was talking about, and not caring. They danced a reckless path through the room, forcing the other dancers to jump out of their way. No one thought to complain. Sarah Jane Smith and the renegade Doctor were so obviously happy in their own little world, it would have been a shame to disturb them.  
  
* * *  
  
No one can predict the future; no one can plan for every variable. And really, why would anyone want to? The very unpredictability of life is a gift.  
  
Just don't be too put out by the occasional mistake.  
  
"Well of COURSE I knew what was going to happen, I just..misplaced the information for a while. It was an easy mistake to make, what with the White Star Line chartering the ship out, and selling it, and changing its name twice. Not many people could keep up with all that. I mean honestly," he said as they ran towards the TARDS through the hallways of the sinking ship, "They went and named two of their ships "Baltic". How could anyone be expected to remember on short notice which one was which?"  
  
She was cross with him about that for days afterward.  
  
End  
  
"The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today." Charles W. Eliot  
  
[Author's note: My first submission to fanfiction.net, and I couldn't have asked for a better response. Thank you to everyone who left feedback.] 


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